Professional Learning Community Consultation increase the effectiveness of collaborative time
Building effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) is one of the most impactful ways to maximize your school’s collaboration time.
Our approach focuses on building collective efficacy, which provides the foundation for effective Professional Learning Communities.
Results from partners who work with Continua on improving their Professional Learning Communities:
- Increase staff measures of collegial trust as much as 50% in one year
- Increase % of high school students who identify trusted adults on staff from 70% to 88%
- Increase in data literacy and analysis skills, resulting in a significant drop in Tier 2 intervention and special education referrals
The Seven Stages of PLC Development
Stage 1: Introduction and Alignment
Staff are introduced to the school or district improvement goals and how collaborative time will be used to support them. Expectations for PLC participation and purpose are clearly defined.
Stage 2: Building Collective Efficacy
Staff learn about the concept of collective efficacy and how it connects to student outcomes. Leadership teams begin organizing decision-making structures and creating feedback loops between staff and leadership.
Stage 3: Establishing Systems and Norms
Staff engage in learning about Implementation Science while building the foundational tools for collaboration—such as communication systems, meeting protocols, and team norms to ensure consistency and transparency.
Stage 4: Developing Data Literacy
PLCs begin using data more intentionally. Teams identify common data sources, learn to interpret evidence, and use protocols that ensure equity of voice and safe, constructive discussions about student learning.
Stage 5: Examining Instructional Practice
Teams start to analyze instructional practices behind the data, exploring what is currently happening in classrooms versus what is desired. This stage focuses on reflection, trust, and creating safe spaces for professional dialogue about teaching and learning.
Stage 6: Focusing and Refining Practice
PLCs identify a specific practice to improve and collaboratively examine the gap between current and evidence-based practice. Teams engage in reflective discussions, challenge assumptions, and plan for meaningful instructional change.
Stage 7: Implementation and Feedback
Teams put new strategies into action, observing each other’s practice, providing feedback, and tracking the impact on student outcomes. This stage emphasizes collective ownership, fidelity of implementation, and sustaining continuous improvement.
*This rubric has been created from blending 7-Stages PLC criteria with The Data Wise Rubric and additional evidence and research-based criteria/checklists from PLC research and implementation science practices.
Created by Heather Sweeney at Continua Consulting Group
